Hudson Bay vs. Great Britain: You could fit Great Britain entirely into Canada’s Hudson Bay!
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Few people realize just how vast Hudson Bay really is. It’s so large that it could easily accommodate the entire island of Great Britain, with plenty of space left over.
Hudson Bay covers an area of 1.23 million square kilometers (474,000 square miles)—making it one of the largest inland seas in the world. In contrast, Great Britain—the largest of the British Isles—spans only 229,848 square kilometers (88,745 square miles). That means Hudson Bay is more than five times larger.
Take a look at the map below created by Reddit user PoneyEnShort to see just how the two compare side by side.
The bay is also longer and wider. It stretches 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) from north to south and over 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from east to west. Great Britain, by comparison, is 965 kilometers (600 miles) long and under 500 kilometers (300 miles) wide at its broadest.
| Feature | Great Britain | Hudson Bay |
|---|---|---|
| Area | 229,848 km² (88,745 mi²) | 1,230,000 km² (474,000 mi²) |
| Length | ~965 km (600 mi) | ~1,500 km (930 mi) |
| Width | ~500 km (300 mi) | ~1,050 km (650 mi) |
| Average Elevation / Depth | 162 m (531 ft) | 100 m (330 ft) |
| Highest Point / Max Depth | Ben Nevis: 1,345 m (4,413 ft) | 270 m (900 ft) |
| Lowest Point | The Fens: -4 m (-13 ft) below sea level | — |
The maximum depth in Hudson Bay is 270 meters (900 feet), with an average depth of about 100 meters (330 feet). Although it may appear shallow in comparison to deep lakes or ocean trenches, Hudson Bay is unique because it is a drowned glacial basin formed when retreating ice sheets left behind an enormous depression that eventually filled with seawater.
The bay’s waters remain cold year-round and are ice-covered for much of the winter, flanked by boreal wilderness and sparsely populated coastlines.
Great Britain, by comparison, is a landmass of rolling hills and moderate elevations. Its average elevation is about 162 meters (531 feet). Ben Nevis, the highest point, rises to 1,345 meters (4,413 feet), while the eastern English Fens, the lowest point, is -4 meters (-13 feet) below sea level. It’s interesting to note that Ben Nevis is five times higher than Hudson Bay’s deepest point, highlighting the bay’s enormous area but shallow depth.
One reason this map resonates is that we often associate importance with size. Great Britain’s cultural, political, and historical impact has shaped global events for centuries, yet it looks tiny inside the outline of Hudson Bay. Hudson Bay, by contrast, is remote, icy, and sparsely inhabited. Its harsh climate and lack of major population centers, coupled with a relatively limited cultural, informational, and historical influence on the world stage, have all contributed to a distorted—or at least underestimated—perception of its true size.
